There is evidence that many of the metabolites of the adrenal hormones, as well as some of the hormones themselves, occur in human urine as glucuronides. Procedures for separation, quantitation, isolation, and characterization of steroidal glucuronides are poorly developed. For this reason, investigators who wish to study the glucuronide component of urinary steroids usually treat a partially purified preparation of steroidal glucuronides with beta-glucuronidase to release the free steroids, and after the conjugating group has been removed the definitive studies relating to purification, identification and quantitation of each component are performed on the free steroids themselves. We wish to develop general procedures that are applicable to the study of steroidal glucuronides as conjugates and that eliminate the necessity of hydrolyzing glucuronides to free steroids. It is our objective to synthesize by chemical procedures the glucuronides of the adrenal hormones and of their principal metabolites. The conjugates will be prepared as free glucosiduronic acids, as methyl esters, as methyl ester acetates, as semicarbazones of the methyl ester acetates, etc. With these pure conjugates available it will be possible to perform studies on their stability under various conditions, to investigate procedures for their detection by paper and thin layer chromatograpny and for quantitating them by color reactions, by spectral measurements, by liquid liquid and gas liquid chromatography, and by radioimmuno assay. With procedures available for detecting and quantitating the compounds as conjugates it will be possible to devise new solvent systems and new techniques for separating the conjugates on a micro scale as well as on a preparative scale. With the foregoing fundamental data available it should be possible to separate from body fluids the various steroidal glucuronides which previous studies indicate are present. In addition, numerous studies on the metabolism of the conjugates and the relationship of concentration of conjugates to certain endocrine diseases will be feasible.